The former Minister of Labour of the province of Buenos Aires Marcelo Villegas was investigated today in the case for the alleged setting up of legal cases against UOCRA trade unionist Juan Pablo “Pata” Medina, which was recorded in a filming at the Buenos Aires headquarters of Banco Provincia in June 2017. “I emphatically deny that I have clandestinely armed one or more cases against Mr. Juan Pablo Medina and his relatives, nor that I have participated in a maneuver to that end. I am oblivious to any action that has eventually been orchestrated for this,” said Villegas.
He did so in a 15-page brief that he submitted as a discharge from the indictment. It was this morning before La Plata federal judge Ernesto Kreplak and prosecutor Ana Russo, who are investigating the case and who were at the hearing. Accompanied by his lawyer Marcelo Rocchetti, Villegas refused to answer questions, judicial sources told Infobae.
In his presentation, the former Minister of Labour said that he politically assisted businessmen who were victims of the “Pata” Medina in La Plata to make complaints and disengaged himself from the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) for whatever he did. He also recounted the meeting he had on March 4, 2017 at Casa Rosara with Mauricio Macri and other national officials and told what the then President asked him at that meeting.
The AFI auditor, Cristina Caamaño, reported last December that a video recorded on June 15, 2017 was found at BAPRO in which officials from the government of María Eugenia Vidal and AFI spoke of arming causes against the trade unionist. “Believe me that if I could have - and I'm going to deny this anywhere to you - if I could have a Gestapo, an onslaught force to end all the guilds, I would do it,” Villegas said at that meeting in which construction entrepreneurs from La Plata also participated, who asked him to submit notes against Medina so that they are later judged. He also told the businessmen that he had everything talked to “the Prosecutor, the Prosecutor and the Judge” to go against Medina. In his writing to justice, Villegas made no reference to those phrases. Publicly, in a note with Infobae, he had apologized for the Gestapo phrase.
Along with Villegas, Mayor of La Plata, Julio Garro, former Minister of Infrastructure Roberto Gigante, former Justice Secretary Adrián Grassi, provincial Senator of Juntos for Change Juan Pablo Alan, former AFI executives Sebastián De Stéfano, Dario Biorci and Diego Luis participated in this meeting Dalmau Pereyra and construction entrepreneurs Ricardo Alconada Maglia, Guillermo Moretto, Jorge Del Rio, Fabian Cusini, Bernardo Zaslascky and Marcelo Jaworski. All of them were summoned for inquiry accused of joining an unlawful association.
After that meeting, the businessmen presented the notes against Medina, there were two anonymous complaints against the trade unionist who was arrested and prosecuted by the federal judge of Quilmes, Luis Armela. The trial against Medina was to begin at the beginning of the month but was suspended at the request of his lawyer, Cesar Albarracín, who requested that the file be annulled because he believed that it is an armed cause. Medina is accused of money laundering, illicit association and extortion.
“I am unaware of and did not participate in the design or implementation of a strategy, at the national level, aimed at judicializing the situation of the existing conflict surrounding the actions of UOCRA La Plata section,” Villegas said in his presentation, adding: “Yes, I did it from the provincial level within the framework of my powers and functions as Minister of Labour, which I will report below and will not arise from this account of any crime that could be committed to me”.
The former minister said that the accusations against Medina were old-fashioned, that he had political protection and that from his role he sought “to receive, contain and advise victims of crime and give a legal response from the State” and that “the province 'armed' a strategy covering the political, legal and judicial aspects to address the problem that this subject had generated” but which was not criminal.
Villegas left a defiant phrase: “And if the work carried out to find a solution to that problem is intended to be called 'having armed a cause', I was indeed part of it. And I don't know if it was one or it was several. But it did not at all mean departing from what is regulated by laws or performing illegal tasks.”
The former official said that the businessmen in La Plata did not want to make complaints against Medina and that he had meetings with Garro and Allan to discuss the issue. But the theme was also provincial: “This situation began to be a cause for treatment in the cabinet meetings of the governorate, since the violent interventions in Medina began to generate major problems and no longer only in private works”.
In his writing he named Vidal only once. “The abuses had been extended to the works of the Province and to those of the Nation. It was there that Governor Vidal instructed me to make the corresponding complaints and to support me in the Ministry of Justice. I explained that I did not think it advisable for me, the Minister of Labour, to denounce a trade union representative, since they were going to label the denunciation as politics. He agreed and told me to talk to the victims and assist them together with the Ministry of Justice, which was his specific mission,” he said. The case is accused of the former governor, about whom her telephone calls were analyzed.
Villegas sought to differentiate himself from what could happen at the national level with Medina: “Let it be clear that in this' armed 'there were no anonymous complaints, no intelligence tasks were carried out on those who were perpetrators of the conduct that could later have been judicially reported, there were no follow-up, no requests were made for reports bank, his travels were not investigated, no photos were taken, no information was asked from the FIU or the AFI, NOT ANYTHING”. The reference is because the complaints that brought Medina to prison were anonymous, that AFI agents followed him illegally and that the agency asked for patrimonial reports of the trade unionist.
For Villegas, what justice investigates is not related to the province of Buenos Aires, but to “what I call the Nation lift”, he said in his writing. He said that he had a meeting at Casa Rosada “after notice from the Governor who told me that I was going to be summoned to explain the context in the province and how we were addressing it.”
That meeting took place on March 4, was left on the records of Casa Rosada, and there were Macri, the then national ministers Germán Garavano (Justice), Patricia Bullrich (Security), Jorge Triaca (Labour), Guillermo Dietrich (Transport) and the head of the AFI, Gustavo Arribas.
Villegas said that Macri raised the issue of UOCRA in La Plata because he had reports of delays and conflicts in national works. The former minister recounted what his national peers had to say about the situation. “The story will have lasted no more than fifteen minutes, and the president asked if anyone had anything else to say, to which no one responded. Then, from where Macri was sitting, who didn't have me in her line of sight, looked out and told me 'the governor told me that in the province they are facing a process with businessmen and professional chambers from the Ministry of Labor and Justice, 'and asked me to tell what I reported above,” said Villegas.
And then he said what Macri asked him about the UOCRA La Plata issue: “I explained all the facts and asked me if I had any suggestions, responding that the key was for political power to support the victims and justice so that it operates freely. He told me 'well, perfect, if you need something from those who are here let us know. ' The meeting ended and I left. At no time did the president or anyone in attendance raise or insinuate absolutely anything illegal.”
Villegas also spoke about the AFI agents who were at the BAPRO meeting. He said that Biorci and Dalmau Pereyra had never seen them, yes to De Stéfano, who said he thought he was a lawyer for the presidency “since he presented himself or he was presented to me.”
The former minister registers a meeting at the AFI about which he did not elaborate in his presentation. He said he was summoned. “I was with some people who I never knew who they were except for lawyer De Stéfano, the topic was: To report what at the beginning of this presentation I called “andarivel province” and its evolution. It was a real waste of time for me. We were never informed or knew if Nación was doing anything about Mr. Medina and his extortive actions,” he said.
About AFI, Villegas did not say because the three officials of that agency were at the meeting at BAPRO.
Villegas repeatedly insisted on differentiating what was done with Medina at the provincial and national levels: “I never anything from the province outside the law, and I did not participate in any action carried out from the 'Nation lift' if any action was carried out, which I rule out that it was, if any, absolutely legal as well.”
In the court case, it appears as evidence that Villegas visited the Quilmes court while Medina was being investigated. He said he went there for a hearing in a civil amparo and because of the intervention of the Medina guild ordered by Judge Armella in what the Ministry of Labor was given participation.
Finally, the defense of Villegas asked Judge Kreplak to determine whether the recording of the meeting at BAPRO was made with a court order.
The businessmen, Gigante and Grassi, have already been investigated in the case. All submitted briefs in which they rejected the accusations and refused to answer questions. The inquiries will continue next week. The formalities of Garro, Allan and the three former AFI agents remain. The judge will then be in a position to decide whether to prosecute them.
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